David, What is wrong with a M-7-11 in lieu of the Fatty Knees? I believe most 7-11's are a bit less expensive and easier to locate, you have two boats that are certainly 'cousins' in shape and characteristics. Mine is a rowing demon, almost fun to take out and row around - makes a good fishing boat too! GO In a message dated 3/9/2009 10:56:18 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, davidcpatterson@msn.com writes: I'm set up with a West Marine inflatable micro-dinghy for this season, and hope to figure out whether it can be towed at all without taking to the air like a kite, or filling with water. I was re-reading Maurice Griffiths' "Magic of the Swatchways" 1932 and found this: "Where's the stern drag painter?" yelled the mate from under her sou'wester. My heart sank. "Coiled up neatly on the floor of the dinghy." When we go to sea, my wife and I, with a dinghy in tow, we always (Always? Well, nearly always) bring a long painter aboard from the stern of the dinghy, which is kept slack until it is required to be cast overboard to steady the little boat. On this occasion I had forgotten, and left the drag painter in the bottom of the dinghy. (p.154) While the mate held an electric torch, I lay on the side-deck and hauled in the dinghy. The precious painter had got washed under the after-thwart in a nice tangle! A boathook at last freed it, and in a few minutes it was trailing astern. Then I eased the dingy off on its 10-fathom bass painter until it was swallowed up in the night, and although we ran through some of the biggest and steepest breaking seas I have ever seen, the dinghy gave no further trouble. P.155) ...Now, while I have no idea what a "bass painter" is, the technique is probably sound, if sailing the English Channel, and free of nearby power boats. I do wish I had a little Fatty Knees to struggle with towing. I'd try everything to get it right. David _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet! **************Worried about job security? Check out the 5 safest jobs in a recession. (http://jobs.aol.com/gallery/growing-job-industries?ncid=emlcntuscare00000002)